Picture this - A wisecracking, too cool for school action game hero who wields sword and gun in accord, has access to a variety of special moves and the ability to expend a meter to temporarily power himself up, and runs through a bunch of linear levels, being graded with a rating at the end of each of them. Sounds familiar, right? If it's not Devil May Cry, it's one of the many games strongly inspired by it that populated the PS2 era (and the PS3's to a lesser degree). Rising Zan seems to fit this concept, until you glance at the release date and realize it's a PS1 game that came out roughly two years before DMC1.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to accuse Capcom of ripping people off or whatever, it's just that playing Rising Zan feels like finding a pistol inside an Egyptian pyramid. It's fascinating, honestly, this is a game with many aspects of the Hack 'N Slash genre that wouldn't be codified until much later.

Let's get back to Rising Zan, though. It starts with... quite frankly one of the best intros I've ever seen. Sets the tone perfectly, it's somehow really cheesy but kinda raw at the same time, it's one nasty earworm, honestly all games should start like that. Not being able to understand the lyrics kinda takes away from the charm, but I'd say the JP intro is also quite good. Rising Zan is a stylish game - it never misses an opportunity to show off the protagonist's incredible strength with big ol' QTEs, and at the end of every fight you get to pull off a finisher on the chapter's boss as the theme song plays. Great stuff on that front.

How does it play though? Well, the base combat is actually fairly alright. You've got your fighting game command input attacks, your super mode that's a bit wacky to control because it literally makes Zan move at x2 speed, and your gun and sword attacks, including a combo where you use both. It's nothing too complex, but it feels good enough to do, especially the special moves. Rising Zan is a short game and that's probably for the better; there isn't any way to upgrade yourself or get new moves, it's just a straight shot to the end. Where Zan begins to fall apart is in the actual levels. There isn't any bit that's incredibly horrible but a whole lot of tiny issues that make the experience fall flat a bit. The aforementioned QTEs get pretty demanding by the end, and they're all just mashing for a long span of time, which gets tiring. You don't die if you fail them but you do take unavoidable damage, which is rough because this is not exactly an easy game, levels are long and if you lose you gotta do them over again. I sidestepped that issue with save states but it'd be really annoying if I couldn't.

Another issue is the camera control, or lack thereof. You turn around and it kinda turns with you. You hold L1 and it sometimes moves behind your back. It's mostly fine at the beginning, but as enemies get more mobile, it's not uncommon to struggle to actually face one or even see all attacks coming, especially when getting hit sends you flying and resets your camera (Pro tip, you can see enemies and projectiles in the mini-map at all times). Some enemies just suck, too, and the game sorta feels like it's trying to have a bit more story than it does.

Anyways, Rising Zan also has a second playable character, unlocked when you beat the game (I played her a bit and she didn't seem too different, but I don't think I found all her moves), and a bonus mode you can unlock to put both characters in their underwear (Zan keeps the hat, of course). Y'know, I'm not the guy to get turned on by a PS1 model but I do respect the equality, most games would have only put the lady in the fanservice costume.

I'd have liked to see a sequel, but the company behind Rising Zan disbanded not even 2 years after, so clearly it passed under the radar. Bit of a shame, there's more than a hint of BS in places, for sure, but I don't think it's awful, just unrefined, there's fun to be had.

Alex's Cowabunga Collection Marathon, Pt. 11 of 13

Radical Rescue has a LOT of potential as a concept. It's such a shame that we didn't get more TMNT games in this style! It's a thoroughly enjoyable Metroidvania with a couple of downsides. The main issue is the map, which is just boxes, with no doorways shown. This means that even though 4 or 5 rooms are touching each other, there may only be one way in or out of some of them, and if you were playing in 1993, you'd have nothing to do but trial-and-error your way through, hoping you don't get horribly lost. The second issue is how difficult some of the bosses are. The boss rush at the end followed by a tough-as-nails Shredder fight must have broken the spirits of countless kids in the 90s. If this game were to get an AM2R or even a Samus Returns, these are the only mechanics that would need updating.

Thankfully, if you're playing in the Cowabunga Collection, a detailed map is only a few button presses away at any given moment, and you can rewind or save scum your way through bosses if they're giving you trouble. Since that's how I played Radical Rescue, I had a fantastic time! Rescuing each of your brothers as Michelangelo is a much more unique premise than most of the TMNT games, and each turtle has different traversal ability, making each of them feel more specialized.

This is also (so far) the longest game in the Cowabunga Collection, which was a pleasant surprise. Everything else can be knocked out in about an hour, but this took me around 3 even while using the map. If you've picked up the collection just to play a few specific games, don't skip this one!

This game really took everything nice I had to say about Fall of the Foot Clan - namely the part where I was like "wow, they gave you enough reaction time for enemy spawns despite your character moving so slow!" - and decided to just throw all of that in the garbage.

As your selected turtle gently strolls through levels and attacks with a hit box best described as "pathetic", the sound of your teenaged reptile taking damage will start to become rhythmic as you slog through a tidal wave of relentless enemy spawns and asshole traps. I can't even compliment the more detailed sprites here either because some of the characters (like Bebop, good lord) inexplicably look worse in this game.

The only silver lining in all of this? This game is pretty short and, hey, it has voice clips and they're actually pretty good! Congratulations, TMNT II: Back from the Sewers, you made audible voice clips play through my Game Boy speakers.

i find it pretty terrifying that there's such a thin line between falsehood and reality in the digital age. what should i believe about the creators of this game? is it morally sound to purchase and play this game? who can tell? the situation is increasingly confusing, and i'm not so sure i care enough to dig through reddit threads, twitter posts, and forum rants to gain even a semblance of understanding about the controversy surrounding this game. this is a growing problem that can affect anyone, especially the victims of abusers that have to summon the courage to speak out in scenarios such as these, only to have their traumatic experiences turned into fodder for internet drama.
oh yeah the game's pretty okay

One of the most soulless products I have ever purchased. A spit in the face to previous fans of the franchise. Rather than delivering what made Outlast, well, Outlast, Trials instead is a live service monstrosity fit with the usual trappings. Leveling systems, skill trees, classes (???), gear, cosmetics, roadmaps and microtransactions. I had bought under the pretense it was a more story-focused affair with coop elements, but my heart sank as all the soulless slop live service bullshit slowly crawled on my screen.

I could not even enjoy this with friends, the easiest layup imaginable. The AI is dumb as bricks and the mission structure is lazy and repetitive. I only wish that Red Barrels had taken some inspiration from Hazelight's co-op ventures and delivered a strong co-op experience that was reminiscent of the previous title's core values. There are elements here that could work in a story-driven co-op experience, instead, they are squandered for inane tasks or aggravating mission objectives. Additionally, the flow of the game is bizarre as you have 2 separate loading periods, 1 simply flourishing for the mission. It's during these glimpses that Outlast Trials almost parodies its own franchise, with hallucinated enemies shoving their cock in your face or disemboweling themselves in front of you. It's frankly fucking embarrassing. It's as though a completely different company has created this game, there is zero nuance or reasoning for this to occur, and exists solely for the cheapest of shock values. It's just intermittent flashing scenes of violence that your player character is hallucinating before being thrust into another loading screen.


The state of this franchise is disappointing. This game isn't even scary, they couldn't even do that right. I hope Red Barrels got the money they wanted from this blatant cash-grab. If this is the direction of the franchise moving forward you can count me out.

Embarrassing.

Well, I played every damn game on here, and it's once again time to celebrate Digital Eclipse for making compilations like this. Nobody touches them when it comes to this stuff - nobody even comes close.

The games themselves are fine. It's fun to look at the early history of the Turtles in video games and chart the progress (or lack thereof) of Konami's approach and how they evolved it based on the smash hits that were the arcade games, specifically. There's nothing earth-shattering in here, but that's not really the point, at least for me. This is a historical document.

And actually, that brings up this compilation's weakest aspect. It's got all the options and save states and rewinds and filters you could ever want, as well as a huge amount of behind-the-scenes documentation (translated design docs!), but it's all just kind of barfed out at you and you have to sift through it. Some of the other Digital Eclipse packages had interactive timelines and other elements that put the games into a bigger context, and all the pieces of that are here, but you have to put them together yourself. That's fine, but I really enjoy a more guided experience.

I will continue to buy all of this company's output, even when, as in this case, the subject matter isn't something I'm all that invested in.

Where do I even begin with this game I can't play, that vanished right out from under me?
It kills me that they ported the incredibly underrated Devil's Third multiplayer from Wii U to PC as you see here in the form of the renamed RockShot, and then killed it off in THREE MONTHS, by the time I heard about it, it was already over. In the words of infamous Wanted: Dead filter boss August, is that all?

This is a cry for help shot in the dark tree falling in the forest with nobody around to hear it, but could somebody please reverse-engineer this game?
I'd give anything to play it and host LAN parties with it, [here I'll even give you the URL to install it on Steam] (steam://install/1368430) and yes, that trick I did with the URL there by changing out the app number from the delisted store page, works for LawBreakers, a game that did actually have its multiplayer revived recently (therefore proving that nothing is impossible), and a myriad of other F2P delisted Steam games, and only F2P games.
If it worked with all delisted Steam games it'd be too good to be true.

I found out about that install trick mentioned above because people spread it for acquiring Streets of Kamurocho and the other games from that time Sega released a bunch of freebies for Golden Week and paraded around the corpse of a modern Golden Axe vertical slice from years ago, which they then received backlash for not properly crediting the devs whose unfinished work they humiliated them over, thus ensuring Sega never does a thing like that again. But that's a story for another time, or actually this time, because I did just go off-track to explain it even if it hardly made sense.

I inadvertently expose some facet of my nature when all the multiplayer games I want are the ones that I can't have, I miss you Devil's Third, I miss you Anarchy Reigns, I never even got to play Rumbleverse, that one looked pretty good, the online melee combat multiplayer deathmatch genre, the only genre of online games it seems like I actually enjoy, or OMCMD for short (rolls off the tongue doesn't it) is an elusive species that is not fit for natural selection and would not, could not survive the winter. I love them but they never make it. ...If MMORPG could catch on surely that one should too, right?

And I love Soleil Game Studios too, they're one of my favorite extremely underrated game studios, dare I say they may be the next Platinum (or at least the next Alvion, and if you know who they are without having to look them up, you and I are friends now), formed out of the remnants of controversial Ninja Gaiden I, Black, & II director, difficulty maven, breast-man, and gooner auteur-ner Tomonobu Itagaki's Valhalla Game Studios, they are composed of the people who made Devil's Third operating under a witness protection program and now that I've effectively blown their cover they're going to need to move to the Netherlands, so I'm sorry about that guys. Depending on who you ask, Itagaki either left Tecmo because he didn't get $1.4m in unpaid bonuses for completing Dead or Alive 4, or because he me tooed and his time's up, so he's not traveling with them anymore.
They made Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, Valkyrie Elysium, but more importantly split from Itagaki and continued to refine their ideas from Devil's Third by forking off in two separate directions, one towards fleshing out their multiplayer in the ill-fated RockShot, towards which they displayed an utter lack of confidence by only giving it three months, and the other towards fleshing out its campaign in the form of Stefaniejoostenlike instant cult classic Wanted: FUCKING: Dead (which, by the way, was basically commissioned by some odd rich dude who almost paid Remedy to make it instead of Soleil), and upcoming instant cult classic Stefaniejoostenlike Vanquishlike, Vengeance is Mine

I might be overselling Wanted: Dead there with the profanity, but despite not being a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination it's a definite improvement on the admittedly not great Devil's Third campaign, and serves as evidence that despite being a game from one year ago, 7th gen nostalgia is beginning to come into vogue, as people yearn for the bygone creature comforts of turning off your multiplayer game to boot into a jank-ass singleplayer game with a title like MindJack or NeverDead or Quantum Theory or Shadows of the Damned or WET or Devil's Third or Wanted: Dead because you were tired of being called a slur by a guy sending you a God of War wallpaper

But they've yet to fully realize their original vision for Devil's Third, which by earlier trailers back when the game was being published by THQ and people were actually hyped for it once, was going to be a much more seamless campaign and multiplayer fusion. Maybe they'll realize it in their upcoming Project EDO, the latest in their OMCMD lineage, which they have nothing but concept art and breathless hype for, proclaiming loudly to the world on their front page that their ultimate goal is to make Project EDO one of the most loved and played games of all time. Big talk coming from a small team under the auspices of Tencent, who keeps repeatedly poaching creators like Yakuza's Toshihiro Nagoshi or Suda51 to then have them work tirelessly on some vaporware game that seems to be perpetually just out of reach like a desert mirage, but I guess sooner or later we'll see if it pays off for them. Eventually. For being what they perceive as a future Fortnite, their new NINJA x High-end Action Online Multiplayer title doesn't even have a Backloggd page, so I have my reservations. Hell, Soleil themselves doesn't even have a Wikipedia page yet!

That was a lot of tangents for a game I haven't even been able to try...in summary, what did we even learn today, if anything?

- The only time I'll ever get to play Devil's Third MP and Ace Combat Infinity ever again will be when my brain is being flooded with time-dilating flashback DMT as I experience multiple organ failure
- You can still download delisted F2P Steam games and if like myself you like multiplayer necromancy, the art of bringing back dead games, you could go play LawBreakers through said method
- Please reverse-engineer RockShot, I'm begging you, it can't be that hard right? Surely one of you is a genius?
- Devil's Third multiplayer was cool, you could parkour off a building and throw a katana through some dude's torso
- OMCMD games are too cool and "niche" to live (honestly, I don't believe in the concept of a game being niche, either you have faith in your concept or you don't, any game can be a success with the right word-of-mouth and marketing)
- Tomonobu Itagaki is attracted to women
- Soleil Game Studios is about to hit it big and is another in the long line of things I caught onto before it was cool
- Herzog, deal with this shit
- Nicely done Cortez

Class dismissed

(played as part of ATARI 50)

Self-evidently overblown. Lord knows I enjoy some extra-curricular puzzling in my games - having to make graph paper maps and take notes and do some old fashioned FIGURIN', but being required to arbitrarily try stuff out in-game and then refer back and forth to the manual and comic book page/panels to compare is kind of where I draw the line. If the quest itself was a little more compelling, maybe, but the whole thing just kind of feels like doing homework. ADVENTURE this ain't.

Played as part of Atari 50.

40 years later and SwordQuest still sucks, yet again consisting of almost nothing but trial and error. Can't bring myself to hate this one quite as much as the others since it's more responsive and it doesn't suck quite as much to just run around in for like 10 minutes, but it's still pretty bad.

Although, it really does beg the question of how much people woulda fucking loved Flappy Bird if it was released on the 2600, though.